


Making Friends In High Places

by Sophelia



Series: An Engineer By Any Other Name [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, WinterIron Spring Fling 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 13:44:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11060217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophelia/pseuds/Sophelia
Summary: Howard Stark died childless, leaving behind a multi-billion dollar company and an extremely elaborate will doling out portions of his estate to bizarre causes. Luckily for the Avengers, this included giving them a place to stay in the top of Stark Tower.Tony, like most Stark Industries employees, did his best to ignore the superheroes living above him. That was, until he met a metal-armed super soldier who for some reason keep wandering down from the upper floors.





	1. Chance Meetings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Arboreal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arboreal/gifts).



“Um, Mr. Rhodes?”

Tony turned away from his workbench to see who had called him. One of his interns was hovering in the doorway, twisting his hands nervously. That was never good.

He stood up and started walking across the lab, wiping his hands on the cleanest rag he could find on his way there. “What’s up, kid?”

The intern, Daniel, swallowed nervously before answering. “Well, you see sir, we think the problem with the laser is that it needs a new lens, but we’re out up here, and none of us have access to the storage rooms, so I was just, that is, we were wondering, if you could, um, have someone get some for us?”

Tony sighed. This was the problem with being upper management, he thought. Apart from the handful of interns he’d managed to swipe from down the pipeline, none of his direct reports were actually tech people. Sure, he could send one of his sub-managers who had the correct access to go get the materials the interns needed, but the chances of them actually bringing back the correct part were very low. No, a supply run was just not worth the headache to delegate.

Grabbing his employee ID badge off a nearby desk he started to head out of the workshop. “I’ll handle it, be back in a few minutes.”

“Oh no Mr. Rhodes I didn’t mean to make you get it! I can find someone else who’s free or well maybe it’s not the lens we could’ve been wrong about that I don’t-“

Tony held up a hand to cut off his rambling. “Daniel, it’s fine. Really, this is not a long walk. Also, stop doubting yourself. You’re good at your job, so if you and Maryam think it’s a bad lens then it’s probably a bad lens.”

Daniel stammered a bit as he walked alongside Tony down the hall. “O-oh uh gosh thanks Mr. Rhodes, that means a lot. I just didn’t want to waste your time.”

“Risk and reward, kid,” Tony said, stepping into the elevator as it arrived, “it’s how you tell if something is worth doing. The reward is possibly getting that damn laser working again, and the biggest risk is me getting in some cardio. Overall, that makes this a hypothesis worth testing, you get it?”

The intern’s head was still nodding vigorously as the elevator doors closed in his face. Tony hit the button for sub-basement two and swiped his ID. That floor wasn’t technically open for use right now, but one of the benefits of being a director of more divisions than most could count was that no one really questioned you about which fabrication labs you chose to visit.

The doors opened and he stepped out into a completely deserted hallway. Perfect. This is what he had been hoping for; without other employees around to drag him into conversation he actually stood a chance of getting back to his workshop quickly.

He swiped his card and walked into the first lab on the hall, heading straight for the storage closet in the back that he was pretty sure he remembered holding what he needed. He was halfway there when a loud crash sounded across the room. Jerking around, Tony was met with the sight of a disheveled man hastily trying to right the table he had apparently knocked over.

He looked terrible.

Long hair hung in limp strands around a rough, beard-covered face. His clothes despite being all dark colors were horribly mismatched and clearly had been worn for several days minimum. If the almost definite promise of unshowered-hobo stench hadn’t been enough to make Tony keep his distance, the manic look in the man’s eyes certainly was.

Tony stood frozen, unsure what to do next. On the one hand the man was probably a crazy person who had broken in and would attack him any second now, but on the other hand Tony really really wanted to know how the man had gotten past security, and if he beat a hasty retreat now he would probably never find out.

Risk and reward, he thought. A potential maiming from a crazy vagrant in exchange for satisfying his curiousity? Worth it.

“So, scary scruffy guy, mind telling me how you got in here? Or at least why? No actually I want to know both answers, how and why are you here, creepy homeless man?”

“-m not h’meless”

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I said I’m not homeless. I – Steve – he said I can stay here…” The man trailed off uncertainly.

That didn’t make any sense, no one stayed residential in Stark Tower except – Tony stifled a gasp as the man shifted slightly and light reflected off his arm. Reflected. Off his _arm_.

Everyone knew the Avengers lived in Stark Tower. In his will, Howard Stark left funds with instructions for their use through some government agency no one knew the name of. Apparently, the superhero team qualified for the inheritance, giving them a base of operations in the top floors of the tower.

What no one actually did know was the day-to-day activities of said superhero team. Even those who worked in the tower didn’t know what they were usually up to; the current CEO was very vocal about keeping the two groups separate, to ‘protect the employees from becoming collateral damage in the event of an attack on the Avengers.’ Still though, there were rumors, and the latest ones were of Captain America bringing home a man with a metal arm from a mission in D.C.

“Alright, well, even if that is the case, you still shouldn’t be here. Mr. Stane has pretty strict rules about who has access to what floors. Speaking of, seriously, how did you get in here?”

The man hesitated for a moment, then jerked his head to the wall on his right where a vent hung open.

Tony whistled appreciatively. “Wow, that’s some ninja level infiltration. Look, I’m not going to tell anyone I saw you here, but you really need to leave now.”

Both men stood staring at each other for an uncomfortably long time. The strange man’s eyes kept flickering between the vent and Tony, and he made several aborted movements as if to start turning.

“What, do you need me to leave first?”

The relief on the other’s face was so evident that there could be no question that Tony had hit the nail on the head with that observation.

“Ok metal guy, I’m going to leave now and trust that you’ll do the same when I'm gone, that work?”

There was nothing for a few seconds, but when he got a tiny nod in response Tony headed for the door.

“This has been strange, let’s do it again sometime. Later Terminator!”

Tony headed back down the hall quickly and flew into the elevator when it opened.

He had just had one of the weirdest exchanges of his life, and that was counting that one time sophomore year in Ottawa. He was ready to get back to his workshop and-

“Ughhhhh!” Tony banged his head against the elevator wall in frustration. He had forgotten the lenses.

\---

In the weeks that followed Tony didn’t think much about the metal-armed maybe-Avenger, he really didn’t. Just occasionally when he had to grab stuff for the interns. Or whenever one of the resident superheroes popped up on the news. Or every single time he got in the elevator and debated going back down to that same room to see if he was there again.

Really, it wasn’t all that often.

Point being, when he saw the flash of silver around the corner in the employee parking garage on his way out of the office, he definitely didn’t follow it just on the off-chance it was attached to a certain mysterious man he hadn’t been thinking about. He rounded the corner and, despite insisting he didn’t care about the man, was excited to see him sitting on the ground against the wall.

“Hey, homeless guy, long time no see!”

The man looked up a Tony with a furrowed brow. “I’m still not homeless.”

Tony slumped against the wall next to his confused conversation-mate. “The ‘being marginally well-groomed and obviously having showered recently’ look does help your case there, but the hanging out in parking garages thing? Not so much.”

The man exhaled softly, almost but not quite a laugh. “I’m…I just needed to get out. I…why are you here? Shouldn’t you be driving home? Where’d you park?” He peered up and looked around as if he could pick Tony’s vehicle out from the rows of cars surrounding them.

“What, drive to work? In the city? Please, even I’m not that crazy. My friend Rhodey is picking me up down here, we’re going upstate for the weekend.”

“Your friend’s name is Rhodey?”

“Colonel James Rhodes if you want to get official with it but yeah, Rhodey.”

“But isn’t your name Anthony Rhodes?”

“Sure but I knew Rhodey before that and-wait wait wait, how do you know my name?” Tony looked at the man next to him in surprise.

He shrugged. “Elevator access records.”

First he breaks into that lab, now he hacks employee card swipe records? Tony would actually be impressed if the guy hadn’t basically just admitted to using company resources to stalk him.

“Right, well,” Tony said, eyeing the man next to him, “first of all, I usually just go by Tony outside of work, so it’s not as confusing as you’d think. Second, Rhodey was Rhodey well before I was a Rhodes, and I never saw the point in changing that.”

The other man was still looking very confused. Tony sighed. “Alright, so, Rhodey and I have the same last name because we’re brothers. Kind of. I think it counts. See, we got paired up as roommates my freshman year of college, which is when I started calling him Rhodey actually. I was kinda young to be in school and I didn’t really have a place to go on breaks, so he started taking me home with him. Rhodey’s parents were fantastic, really took me in and basically adopted me. Then they find out I’m a ward of the state and next thing I know they’re actually adopting me.”

He shook his head in amazement. “I mean, who adopts their son’s 16 year-old roommate for no reason? I was going to age out of the system in a couple years anyways, and with the whole college thing I didn’t have to live in foster homes anymore so…anyways, that’s why we’re hitting the road today. Going up to see Mama Rhodes for her birthday.”

Metal-arm guy was nodding now. “So what was your name before you were adopted?”

Tony grimaced. “Armstrong.”

“…Anthony Armstrong?”

“Yeah. I didn’t have to change it, but I think you can see why I did.” Tony slunk down the wall some more to sit on the ground fully. “Alright metal-man, as much as I love coming up with new things to call you, it’d be great to get an actual name.”

“I’m uh, I…,” the man shook a bit before pulling himself together. “I’m Bucky. Or at least, I’m working on being him.”

“Bucky? Really? Like in the comic books? Geez your parents must have hated you, that might be worse than my old name.”

There was the little laugh breath again. “Yeah, like in the comic books. Short for Buchanan and everything. It’s a lot like you and your Rhodey – my friend gave me the name and it’s stuck.”

A car pulling out of the garage suddenly made a loud screeching noise as the driver braked around a curve. The man – Bucky – jumped up with a start, that manic look from before back in his eyes.

Tony looked up at him warily. “Um, seriously? If you wanted a quiet place to lay low, the parking garage at quitting time was probably not a great bet.”

Bucky’s mouth twitched up at the corners at that. He was in alert mode, but was also visibly starting to calm. “Sorry, I just thought-“

“Ahem.”

Both men whipped around. The woman who had just spoken was standing with her arms crossed staring at them, mostly at Bucky. She was lovely and composed, her bright red hair perfectly curled around her face. If Bucky was living with the Avengers, and this woman seemed to know him, then that meant…

Tony gulped. “Are you the Black Widow?”

The woman diverted her gaze from Bucky to stare inquisitively at Tony instead. She then arched her eyebrow and looked between the two of them. The look was definitely judgmental, but Tony honestly couldn’t tell who she was directing it towards.

At that moment, Tony’s phone beeped with an incoming text message. _Oh, thank God_ , Tony thought. He opened his phone to a new message from Rhodey, letting him know he was on the first level and ready to leave.

“My ride’s here, so we’ll just pretend I never asked you that. See you around, Bucky.” Tony spun around and headed to the stairs. He needed a weekend with his best friend and his family to unwind and forget the fact that he may have just met the world’s deadliest assassin.

Bucky watched Tony walk away, and Natasha smirked.

“You think he’s cute, don’t you?”

Bucky startled. He wrenched his eyes away from the stairwell Tony had just disappeared down. Backing up against the wall he hunched his shoulders, let his hair fall across his face, and mumbled, “The asset is not…not permitted…”

Natasha’s smirk fell and her eyes softened. “Come on Yasha,” she said gently, “let’s get back upstairs.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I firmly believe that without Tony's family around, Rhodey would have adopted him into his. I also believe that even with Tony's family around he tried once anyways.


	2. Finding A Friend

Tony shuffled blurry-eyed and yawning largely into the employee break room. As he passed through the threshold the motion sensors flipped on the lights, illuminating the simple but comfortable sitting area and kitchenette. He headed for the coffee maker and poked blindly at the buttons, silently thanking whichever employee had thought to refill the water tank before they went home.

As the machine warmed up he leaned against the counter, making it do most of the work to keep him standing; his legs certainly couldn’t be trusted to do that anymore after nearly letting him topple over in the hallway.

He should have gone home hours ago. He knows this. Tomorrow is going to be hell, staying awake in all his meetings will be near impossible. It was a vicious trade – he’d risen exactly as far as he needed to in the company to get the private workshop and mountains of funding, but he had to attend a million meetings that kept him from just sequestering himself inside said private workshop.

To be fair, he’d probably spend just as many late nights at the office even if he had all day to devote to his work, but it hurt to think of all the time he wasted approving designs from Robotics or arguing with Johnson in Clean Energy about the potential of the arc reactor project. Johnson was convinced that Howard Stark’s designs were as good as it got and there was no point to continue work in that area, but Tony was sure he could improve it if he only had the time to try, maybe when he got back to his workshop he could pull up the specs and take another look.

Tony groaned. No, this was exactly how he kept ending up here, slumped across a semi-flat surface next to a gurgling coffee machine at – he checked his phone – 3:11 in the morning. He missed Pepper. The accountant had definitely made the right choice career-wise by taking that position in the Malibu office, but he missed having someone in the office who wasn’t afraid to yell at him if he started putting too much on his plate.

The sharp _ting_ of metal against metal sounded from across the room. Tony slowly raised his head in confusion, too exhausted to be startled. The tinging continued, a steady rhythm being tapped out from the wall next to the fridge. He looked up into the vent above the tiny dining table and was met with a pair of blue eyes set in a familiar face.

As he watched the man gestured with his hand – _metal hand, that’s what that sound was_ – for Tony to come closer. Tony let himself have one more moment of bewilderment before pushing off the counter and shambling to the other side of the room. He climbed up on the table, putting himself face-to-grate-to-face with the only person he knew who liked to travel via the ventilation system.

“Hey metal arm guy, or I guess I should start calling you Bucky, what’s up? Well you’re up, obviously, up there in the vent, and I’m up on this table, and we’re both up way too late so there’s that too, and we’re up here in this tower although you’re normally much higher up and really what I’m trying to ask is, what are you doing here?”

Bucky smiled and snorted out a laugh. A real laugh. Small, yes, but Tony still found himself suppressing a grin at the sound.

“Geez, how much coffee have you had?”

Tony sighed and leaned his head against the grate. “Not enough, I know that much.”

He glared across the room at the little coffee maker as it chugged along. He knew it was doing its best, but he still resented it keeping him from his fix. “Don’t distract me, why are you in the vents again?”

Bucky shrugged, an impressive feat in the cramped space. “Wanted to come see you. Know I’m not allowed on this floor. Plus, ya know, this whole situation – “ he wiggled his metal fingers “ – kinda freaks people out. Didn’t wanna scare anyone.”

“Well hey!” Tony clapped his hands together and grinned, “You’re in luck, because we’re the only people stupid enough to be awake right now! Get out of there, that can’t be comfortable.”

Tony climbed down and rushed across the room in excitement as the coffee maker finally _finally_ beeped to indicate it was done brewing. Bucky carefully pushed the grate out of his way before silently hopping down, putting the grate back in place, then sitting on one of the chairs surrounding the table. He waved off Tony’s offer of coffee, and watched as the other man shuffled back over and sat down before taking a gulp of his drink.

“Mmmm oh God that’s ohh oh ouch that’s hot ow ohh so good.” Tony grimaced even as he continued to drain his cup at an alarming rate.

Bucky was grinning now. “You two need a minute alone?”

“Shut up Terminator,” Tony glared, “this is my life-blood. This is what lets me think, lets me create, lets me realize I still have important questions like how did you know I would be in here?”

“Didn’t.” Bucky shook his head. “Knew which floor your office was on, just crawled around until I found you.”

“Seriously? You crawled-nevermind, give me your phone.” Bucky looked confused but pulled his phone out of his pocket and placed it in Tony’s outstretched hand.

“Why?”

“I’m going to put my number in it of course. It’s the 21st century, if you want to hang out you can just call me.”

Tony turned the phone over in his hands. It was a basic StarkPhone model, simple but reliable. It could definitely be better, would be better if it was a product under Tony’s management, but as he had already established he had enough responsibilities. Still, it was good enough to run most programs, including…

“Actually hold on, I’m…” Tony rummaged around in his pockets looking for – sure, that cord will work, as long as he can find the adaptor somewhere…oh there it is, and of course his own phone, “…going to give you JARVIS”

“JARVIS?”

“Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. He’s my AI. You can ask him where I am and he’ll let you know, that way you can find me even if I’m not paying attention to my phone.” He finished connecting Bucky’s phone to his and started the installation process, then looked back up, “So, any particular reason you played one-sided hide-and-seek to come see me?”

“Not really, no, just wanted to,” Bucky scrunched up his nose, “what’d you say? Hang out?”

“I’m down with that, not a lot of people to talk to this time of night.” Tony squinted down at his cup, sad to see it was almost empty. He would need to get up and get more soon if he didn’t want to pass out.

“Yeah, why are you working so late anyways?”

With that Tony was off, lost in the enjoyment of explaining his latest breakthrough. Bucky seemed legitimately interested in the conversation, asking questions here and there and offering commentary where he could. It was so pleasant that Tony didn’t even notice when the coffee ran dry and everything…started…slowing down…

He woke up the next morning spread out on the break room couch, covered with the ugly but warm afghan someone had left behind ages ago. It was surprisingly comfortable, but unfortunately the alarm currently going off on his phone meant that he only had half an hour to grab his emergency suit from his office and make it to his first meeting. He hopped off the couch and hurried to gather his things, but couldn’t help sparing a moment to smile down at his perfectly clean coffee mug sitting by the sink.

\---

“Sir, I feel you should know you’re about to have a visitor.”

Tony laid down the blueprints he had been pouring over and looked towards the little desk speaker JARVIS had just spoken from. “A visitor? What are you talking about, J?”

“Your,” here JARVIS paused for a second, “…friend requested your location. After telling him you were in your workshop, he began heading this way and should be arriving momentarily.”

“My friend?” Tony frowned, “Wait, are you talking about-“

His workshop door slammed open then closed again just as quickly, and a figure flew under his desk and curled up at his feet.

“-Bucky?” The man in question turned his head to face Tony and put his finger over his mouth.

Tony lowered his voice to a whisper, “What are you doing down there?”

“Shut up, he’s gonna hear you, I gotta hide!” Bucky hissed as he arranged his limbs so he was completely hidden underneath the desk.

“What are you talking about, who’s-“

A knock rang sharply through the room. Tony looked down at Bucky in bewilderment, but Bucky just gave a series of violent hand gestures between himself, Tony, and the door…that was probably supposed to mean something.

Tony cleared his throat and raised his voice to call out, “Uh…come in?”

The door swung open and a tall blond man stepped inside. He peered searchingly around the room but, apparently not finding what he was looking for, turned to Tony a bit sheepishly.

“Hi, Mr. Rhodes? Sorry, I was looking for my friend, thought he might be in here. You haven’t seen anyone come in by any chance?” He was looking around the room again as he shifted his weight back and forth, too polite to invade the space even though he clearly wanted to get a better look. Tony had to stifle a laugh when he glared suspiciously at the vents.

“Nope, haven’t seen anyone, sorry to disappoint.”

The man sighed. “Well, thank you anyways.” He turned and started to walk out, then paused and turned back around. “Are you sure there’s no one in here? I thought I heard voices.”

Tony turned to the desk speakers. “Hey JARVIS, say something buddy.”

“Sir, ‘something’ is rather vague, could you possibly be more specific when asking me to perform parlour tricks?”

“Oh.” The man blinked in surprise at JARVIS’s voice. Even with the formal British accent, or maybe partially because of it, JARVIS always sounded just robotic enough to not possibly be confused with a human. “Sorry, just wanted to be sure. I’ll go now. Thank you again.”

As the door shut behind him Tony let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He looked down at Bucky in blank-faced horror.

“Please tell me I didn’t just lie to Captain America.”

“You didn’t.” Bucky said, and Tony relaxed. Bucky smirked. “You lied to Steve Rogers. He’s only Captain America when he’s in uniform.”

“That’s not better!” Tony squawked.

Bucky laughed as he clambered out from under the desk. “Don’t worry about it, he’s a punk. Plus he deserves it for driving me nuts.” He stood up and started walking around, looking at various machines and papers strewn across the many surfaces in the room.

“Driving you nuts by what, chasing you around the tower?”

“By being a damn mother-hen,” Bucky said, “it was great when I first got here, but at this point I just want to be able to sit in silence for five minutes without him thinking I’m depressed.”

It was weird for Tony having someone else poking around his workshop, but he found it was surprisingly not unwelcome. “You can hang out here for a while if you want. I’ve got a lot of work to do and won’t be great for conversation anyways, so you can brood in the corner or whatever you want.”

Bucky smiled. “Thanks, Tony.”

Tony jerked his head back down to look at his papers again, trying to hide the slight blush that was creeping across his cheeks at the realization that the other man had just called him by his name for the first time.

Several hours later Tony stood up from a workbench to stretch and was a little surprised to see Bucky was still there, although he had migrated to sitting in a chair on the far side of the room and was shuffling through a stack of papers. Tony walked over to join him and Bucky looked up at his approach with a grin.

“The zombie emerges.”

Tony snorted. “Shut up. I told you I wouldn’t be any good for conversation. What’re you looking at anyways?”

Bucky held up a blueprint. “Suit of armor?”

“Flying machine,” Tony corrected, “the full body coverage is to protect against wind shear.”

Bucky’s eyes lit up. “Flying machine? Is it anything like Stark’s flying car?”

“Wow, yes, actually.” Tony looked at him in astoundment. “I based the boots on his old hover tech. I redesigned them to have more power and, of course, cars weren’t really designed to go straight up so the aerodynamics are better on this, but the basic principles are still there. How’d you know about that? It was considered a major flop, they don’t really advertise it much.”

Bucky cleared his throat nervously. “I saw it. At the Stark Expo.”

“Stark Expo? There hasn’t been a Stark Expo since before Howard Stark died.” Tony was also pretty sure that even if there had been an Expo in recent years they wouldn’t have been trotting out failed experiments from the 40s.

“I know. But there was one in 1943.”

“194-what are you talking about?”

Bucky breathed in deeply before looking Tony directly in the eyes and powering on. “Remember how you said my name was like in the comic books? That was pretty scarily accurate. My full name is James Buchanan Barnes. I fought with the Howling Commandos and, despite what all the history books say, I did not die in Italy in 1945.”

Tony stared at Bucky. Bucky stared back. Tony tried desperately to get his brain back online. Bucky sat grimly waiting for a response.

“So wait, you’re not just random-guy-who-happens-to-be-named-Bucky, you’re Captain-America’s-sidekick-Bucky?”

Bucky groaned and threw his head into his hands. “Fifteen years I spend saving Stevie from getting his ass beat, then the punk goes and gets himself involved in one crazy medical experiment and suddenly _I’m_ the sidekick!”

Tony laughed at that, a bit uncertainly still. “You do realize this sounds crazy, right? How are you possibly alive right now?”

“Little bit of luck. Little bit of serum. Little bit of mad scientists keeping me alive for experiments.” He wiggled the fingers in his metal hand around for emphasis.

“Is that why you were….not doing so great before?”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah. They had me for a while until Steve busted me out. He saved my life and I…” he sighed, “and I need to stop hiding from him. All his fussing is annoying but he’s just doing it cause he cares, and I’m pretty sure I was just as bad when he used to get sick.” He stood up from his chair and started to move towards the exit.

“You know, you’re welcome to come here whenever you need a place to hide. If I keep lying to Captain America enough maybe I’ll stop feeling guilty about it.”

“Really?” Bucky looked surprised, “Even with all that, you’re still ok with me hanging around?”

Tony grinned. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m still freaking out. I’m just also trying to figure out how to get you in that costume from the comics.”

“Oh don’t even think about it,” Bucky laughed, “there was no point in history that thing was in style. None.” He opened the door to leave. “Thanks, Tony. See ya soon?”

“See ya soon, Bucky.” Tony smiled as the door clicked shut. He looked back down at the papers Bucky had been reading. These were all personal projects he had pushed aside at one point, usually because his actual job demanded he focus his attention elsewhere. Still, it was nice to pull them out and look at them every once in a while. He ran his fingers over the top of a page, where his own careful blocky handwriting had written the project title for the flying machine.

With a mournful headshake, he shoved the blueprints back in a random stack. Project Iron Man wasn’t lifting off any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clint's definitely the one who taught Bucky about hiding in vents. Brainwashing-victim-bros stick together.


	3. Let's Go Driving

_He was strapped down and shoved into the cryotube._ He was laying on his back on the roof. _He could hear the hum of the machine as they prepared to wipe his mind again._ He could hear the hum of the generator next to him as it finished recharging the quinjet’s backup batteries. _He could smell the stench of blood and death and terror as he flawlessly executed orders._ He could smell the stench of the city where people died every day but never because of him.

Bucky shuddered and fumbled around in his pocket for his phone. When he was finally able to pull it out he unlocked the screen and touched the little ‘J’ icon. “Hey, JARVIS? Is Tony around?”

“Sir is currently in his workshop.”

“Could you...could you ask if he can come up here?”

There was a short pause. “Sir is on his way.”

“Thanks, JARVIS.” Bucky put his phone back in his pocket and stared up at the night sky. It wasn’t long before he heard the roof door open and click shut again, then a familiar shape was standing over him.

“Hey Buckaroo, what’re you doing up here?”

Bucky looked up at Tony. _Freaking out, hiding, trying not to think about Hydra coming to get me._ “Stargazing.”

Tony blinked down at Bucky, turned his head to peer at the sky, shrugged, and laid down next to him. “This something you do a lot?”

“Not really. Used to, in the war, whenever we were camped out in the middle of nowhere with nothing else to do. Gabe knew names of constellations and shit, would tell us all the stories about bears and Greek gods and whatever else was up there.”

“If Thor and Loki are real,” Tony said thoughtfully, “are Greek gods real too?”

“I hope not, those guys are assholes.”

Tony laughed, and Bucky’s chest clenched up the same way it always did at the sound. It was the same feeling he got when Tony smiled at him, or called him a silly nickname, or started rambling excitedly about whatever held his attention at the moment.

Tony fidgeted a bit before speaking up again. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to, but, you have the super-soldier serum, right?”

“Something like it, sure.”

“Does that mean you have the enhanced hearing and eyesight and everything?”

“Yeah…” Bucky turned to look at Tony, wondering where this was going.

“So, can you actually see any stars right now? Cause it just looks black to me.”

Bucky laughed, “No, I can’t see a damn thing.”

“Oh, thank fuck.” Tony jumped up from the ground, stretching his arms up above him. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Bucky propped himself up on his elbows. “Go? Go where?”

“Upstate, outside the city!” Tony jerked his thumb vaguely towards ‘upstate’; Bucky wasn’t going to be the one to tell him he was pointing at Jersey. “Fuck light pollution, let’s go somewhere we can actually see stars.”

Bucky raised his eyebrows and nodded towards the quinjet. “You know I’m not actually allowed to just take that thing whenever, right?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I’ll handle transport, don’t worry about it.” He offered his hand, and Bucky grabbed it to pull himself off the ground.

He really didn’t need the help getting up, and he definitely didn’t need to be guided around the tower he had cased every inch of, but he didn’t let go as Tony pulled him to the roof door and down several flights of stairs. Once they were a few floors down Tony turned into a deserted hallway and stopped in front of an elevator, only then letting go of Bucky to swipe his badge and push the button.

For a second Bucky considered grabbing his hand again.

Once they were inside the elevator Tony pushed the button for the parking garage. “I thought you didn’t drive to work,” Bucky said.

“I don’t, but SI,” Tony patted the wall lovingly, “keeps a couple dozen cars around for employees to check out when they need to drive to meetings or other appointments. We’ll just grab one of those and be good to go.”

The elevator opened and Tony turned towards a row of identical silver cars at the edge of the garage.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Bucky asked, “This isn’t exactly a business trip.”

“It’s fine, it’s not like anyone else is going to be using them at this time of night.” Tony swiped his badge at a kiosk and a set of keys dropped from a slot, with a tag attached denoting which car they opened. “Besides, they’re not going to care what the two of us do. I make this company hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and you’re an Avenger.”

He stopped beside the car. “Wait, are you an Avenger?”

Bucky shrugged. “That’s what my clearance card says. I’m not on active-duty yet though.”

“You’ve got an Avengers clearance card? Yeah, no, we’re fine, you can do whatever you want. I think that would even let you check one of these out yourself if you ever wanted one.” Tony unlocked the car and climbed in; Bucky did the same on the passenger’s side. Tony pulled out of the parking deck and began weaving them through the evening traffic.

“It’ll probably take a couple hours to get anywhere dark enough, you should get some rest.”

Bucky nodded, even though he didn’t plan on sleeping. Instead he laid back in his seat, smiling as Tony turned on the radio and started singing along to some rock song. The rumble of the motor combined with the harsh notes tumbling out of the speakers was oddly soothing, and Bucky was amazed at how safe he felt.

“Hey Sleeping Beauty, wake up.” Bucky startled awake at Tony’s voice and looked around wildly. They were on the side of a small one-lane road in the middle of a forest, and he could see the main road about twenty feet behind them.

“Wait, what?”

Tony was grinning. “You have a nice nap? C’mon, we’re here.” He hopped out of the car and Bucky scrambled to follow.

Tony climbed up on the hood of the car and patted the spot next to him. “Hop up here, time to look at some stars.” Bucky settled in next to him on the car, careful not to scrape his metal arm against the paintjob.

“Probably not as good as what you saw in the middle of some empty European forest in the ‘40s, but it’s pretty good, yeah?”

Bucky gazed up at the twinkling stars far above them, then turned his head to look at Tony. “Beautiful.”

Tony whipped his head around and wide, brown eyes met Bucky’s. A faint blush was blooming across his cheeks and the backs of his ears, and Bucky yet again felt that clench in his chest he couldn’t quite name.

With a jerk Tony turned back to the sky. “Tell me a story.”

“What?”

“A star story, like your war buddy taught you.”

“Uh, ok.” Bucky looked up at the sky and pointed to the first cluster he found. “That’s Orion, he was a hunter. He walked around on water with his hunting dog and he got eaten by a giant bug.”

“…That can’t be right.”

“Look, I’m a partial-amnesiac who learned this shit 70 years ago, give me a break.”

Tony burst out laughing and Bucky quickly joined him. “You-you are the worst story-teller!”

“Ok then genius,” Bucky chuckled, “your turn. Go on, do a better job.”

“I’ll have you know I actually am a genius, thank you very much. Let’s see…” Tony wiggled around a bit, then pointed at a cluster of stars close to the horizon. “That is The Great Engineer Antonius.”

“That’s not a thing.”

“Is too, I’ve just decided.”

“You’re naming your new constellation after yourself?”

“Antonius is his own man. Now shut up and listen to your story.”

Bucky laid back with a smile on his face as Tony made up a story of a man making inventions in ancient Greece, the many skittering voices in his head quieted by the single steady one beside him.

\---

Tony ran his hand through his hair and over his face. He tried concentrating on the page in front of him but the words didn’t want to stay in one place. He wondered, if he went for another promotion would he finally be able to hire someone to do this for him, or would the paperwork just multiply? Probably the latter, that’s how it’s worked so far.

Someone knocked on the door to his workshop and he looked up wearily. “Come in.”

The door opened. Tony had been expecting one of his employees, maybe with even more paperwork to give him, but it was Bucky who leaned his head into the room. “Are you hungry?”

Tony stared. “Hungry?”

“Yeah, it’s nearly eight, are you hungry?”

Tony picked up his phone to look at the time. Huh, it really was almost eight in the evening, and he hadn’t eaten anything other than coffee all day - at that thought his stomach rumbled loudly.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Bucky said, “Come on, go out with me.”

“Out with you? As in-“

“Out of the tower, I want food I don’t have to microwave.”  
  
- _out on a date?_ Tony swallowed the question down. “Yeah, sure, I know some decent places around here.”

Bucky shook his head. “I got it covered, you just gotta follow me.” He held up his hand and jingled the keys he was holding. “I’ll drive this time. You were right, my Avengers card works with that employee car check-out thing.”

Tony followed Bucky out of his workshop and down to the parking garage. When they got to the car he tried once again to voice his question. “Is this-“

“The same car as last time? I think so actually.” Bucky squinted at the hood of the car. “Yeah, I think that scuff mark is from my boot. Should probably do something about that.” He shrugged and climbed into the car.

Bucky wasn’t a bad driver, Tony noticed. A bit unsure of himself, maybe, but he probably hadn’t had many chances to drive around modern-day New York. Tony leant back and watched the buildings as they passed.

“Are we…heading into Brooklyn?”

“Yeah, some place Steve recommended,” Bucky said, “I’m pretty sure he only goes to Brooklyn to mope so I’m a little worried that he’s got a favorite restaurant here, but he said they have good burgers.”

As he turned a corner Bucky started slowing down and peering between shops and apartments as they passed. “He also said…oh, here!”

He whipped down a tiny side-street that opened up behind a building into a small parking lot half-filled with cars. When he pulled into a spot the two men sat in stunned silence for a moment.

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you really just find a parking space in Brooklyn?”

“Steve did.”

“God bless America.”

“Amen.”

Bucky flashed a grin at him and leaped out of the car. By the time Tony was done unfastening his seat belt Bucky was there opening his door for him. Bucky offered his metal hand to help Tony out of the car, but Tony paused for a moment before taking it. Before things went any further he really needed some clarification.

“Bucky, is this-“

Everything exploded and his world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember kids, always clarify your relationship status early on in the evening in case you're interrupted by missiles later.


	4. Well This Is Horrible

Bucky had been having vivid nightmares ever since leaving Hydra. Some of them were reenactments of missions or particularly brutal training sessions, but most were like this one: a montage of him being shoved into the chair, the electric currents running through him as sharp in his memory as they had been in real life.

What he couldn’t figure out was why in this dream he wasn’t the only one screaming.

A thick haze covered everything. It was so much easier to sink into it, to not have to think or be aware of his surroundings. He wanted to pull the fog tight around his mind like a blanket and stay numb to the world, but someone was calling out to him.

“-ucky? Bucky! Please, Bucky, please snap out of it!”

The fog lifted slightly, and Bucky blinked into awareness. He was huddled in a dimly lit corner of a room with stone floors and metal walls. His right arm was wrapped around his knees that were pulled to his chest, and he felt sickeningly off-balance. Someone was crouched in front of him, just barely giving him enough space to not feel crowded.

“Honey, please, I can’t do this alone, I need your help!”

Tony. Tony needed help. Bucky pushed past the last remnants of haze and focused on the man in front of him. “Whasits?”

Tony’s pinched expression broke into one of relief at the slurred word. “Oh, thank God, Bucky, there you are! I thought I was never getting you back.”

Bucky reached out his metal arm to comfort him. Nothing happened. He tried again, and when still nothing happened he frowned down at his left side. Why wasn’t it-his arm was gone. Ragged edges of metal stopped just below the shoulder joint, what little plating remained pulled back to reveal a hunk of melted wires and gears. He began to panic.

“Bucky, Bucky no,” Tony hesitated for just a moment before grabbing Bucky’s ankle, “it’s ok, you’re ok. We were attacked and they blew up the arm, but it’s fine, you’re going to be fine, when we get out of here I’m going to make you one a billion times better. It’s going to have JARVIS installed on it and it’ll be completely bomb-proof, just wait and see.”

It took several minutes of Tony reassuring him while Bucky held his head between his legs, but eventually he began to calm down. He looked up to smile at Tony, which is when he noticed what the other man was holding in his lap.

“Is that…a car battery?

Tony grimaced. “Noticed that, did ya?”

Bucky followed the lines of the wires that led from the battery under Tony’s shirt and up his chest. “Tony, take off your shirt.”

“Buckaroo if you’re trying to seduce me you picked a hell of a time.”

“Tony. Take off. Your shirt.”

Tony sighed and pull his shirt up and off his body. Bucky stared in horror at the wires snaking into a gaping hole in Tony’s chest. “What-what happened?!”

“Well,” Tony said nervously, “remember the bit about your arm getting blown up? Some of the shrapnel kinda, sorta, got lodged in my chest. The battery is powering a magnet that’s keeping it from traveling to my heart.”

Bucky sat perfectly still as deep, gnawing guilt ripped through him. Guilt that it was his arm in Tony’s chest, guilt that he had taken Tony out of the tower and made him a target, guilt for ever dragging Tony into his messed up hell of a life.

“Noooo,” Tony groaned, shaking Bucky’s leg, “no, Bucky, stop it, this isn’t your fault.”

“Hydra did this.”

“That’s right,” Tony nodded, “Hydra did this.”

“They were after me, it’s my fault you got hurt.”

“No!” Tony said exasperated, “No, it’s not, it’s Hydra’s, we just agreed they were the ones who did this. Besides, if it wasn’t me it was going to be someone else. Why do you think they put this battery in my chest instead of just leaving me to die in that parking lot? They need an engineer.”

Bucky frowned. “An engineer? What for?”

Tony shifted so Bucky could see past him. “For that.”

The chair. The chair the chair the chair the chair. Bucky felt the fog floating up in his mind again and seized it, ready to disappear as far away as he could, but Tony was talking again.

“They keep trying to use it on you but it’s not working right, instead of following their instructions you just get…empty.” Tony shuddered. “I’ve been pretending to work on it without really fixing anything, but after two weeks of no results they’re starting to get suspicious.”

Bucky froze. Two weeks. They’d been captured for two weeks and he hadn’t been aware of himself in that whole time, disassociating and hiding inside his head. He pushed the haze out of his mind and desperately clawed his way back to reality.

“How’re we getting out of here?”

Tony grinned. “With my genius inventions, of course. But first I need your help with something, come over here.”

When Tony offered his hand to pull Bucky off the ground he took it – this time he actually needed the help. Tony led him to a table on the other side of the room, where he whipped off a cloth with a flourish to reveal a glowing blue circle.

“You made…a flashlight?”

“No! Well,” Tony picked up the device and twirled it in his hand, “I guess it’s that too. No, this, my friend, is a miniaturized arc reactor. Suck it Johnson!”

“Oh. What’s it for?”

Tony gestured to the car battery he was carrying under one arm. “It’s going to replace this. There’s no way I can run away with this thing attached to me. Even if I somehow managed to not knock any of the wires loose, I’d be out of breath before we made it to the front door.” Tony handed the arc reactor to Bucky. “And that’s where you come in.”

Bucky held the machine curiously. He had expected it to run hot, but it was comfortably room temperature. If it weren’t for the faint humming he could barely feel with his enhanced senses, he might think it wasn’t working.

“How am I supposed to help, I don’t know anything about this stuff.”

“You,” Tony said, as he pushed tools to the side and laid down on the table, “are going to help me put it in, no innuendo intended.”

Bucky blanched. “Are you insane?? I don’t know what I’m doing, I could kill you!”

Tony reached over and patted Bucky’s side encouragingly. “Don’t worry, it’s easy. I just can’t do it because I can’t get the angle right. I need an extra hand, and you have one! Look, I’ll hold it while you take out the battery wires and then put in the reactor wires, then you just have to slide it into place. The reactor wires and the battery wires are the same colors, they go to the same hookups, you’ll have no trouble at all I promise.” He laid his hand over his chest dramatically. “Help me Bucky Barnes, you’re my only hope.”

“You can’t just quote Star Wars at people and expect them to perform heart surgery on you.”

“It’s not heart surgery, it’s machine maintenance. Haven’t you ever changed the batteries in a remote before? This is exactly the same.”

Bucky glared at him. “This is nothing at all like that and you know it.” He took a breath to calm himself. “Hold the damn reactor, and don’t you dare move while I’m doing this.”

It wasn’t the first time he had stuck his hand in a man’s chest, but it was the first time he was doing so without aiming to rip out an organ. He tried not to think about what would happen if he screwed up while switching out the wires, and when the reactor finally clicked into place he had to purposefully unclench his jaw before he could speak.

“Did it work?”

Tony looked down at this chest, then reached up a hand to poke around the arc reactor. “I think so? Don’t feel like I’m dying, so let’s go with yes. Toss me my shirt?”

Bucky picked up the shirt from where it was still laying in the corner and threw it over. “What’s next?”

“Next,” Tony said as he pulled on his shirt, “we use Hydra’s stupidity to our advantage.” He pointed to the piles of metal scraps scattered throughout the room. “They have no idea what’s needed to fix their evil mind-rape machine, so they just bring me whatever I ask for. I’ve managed to trick them into bringing me everything I need to build,” he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket that had a familiar looking sketch on it, “my flying machine.”

“You mean your suit of armor.”

“Flying. Machine.” Tony scowled, “Although with the materials we’ve got here it’s going to be too heavy to fly, and anyways I moved the thrusters from the legs into the arms so I can blast people in the face. I’m going to build this and use it to bust us out of here.”

He folded the paper back up and put in his pocket. “I have no idea where we are, so I don’t know what we’ll do when we get out, but we can’t stay here. I don’t understand a lot of what these guys are saying, but I know it’s nothing good.”

Bucky patted his own pockets, but wasn’t surprised when he found nothing. “If we can find my Avengers card, I should be able to activate the tracker and call for help. Wherever we are, my friends will find us.”

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

“…That was another quote, wasn’t it?”

“I guess I should at least be happy you know Star Wars, but when we get out of here we’re having a tv marathon.”

Footsteps sounded outside the room. Tony rushed to Bucky’s side and began whispering urgently. “Listen, they’re about to come in here and put you in the chair again. I’m sorry Bucky, I’m so sorry, but you have to hold on this time, I need you here with me. It’s not going to work so they’re going to get angry. You can’t react to what they do after that - you did the first time and it didn’t end well. Just let it happen and stick to the plan. I’ll get us out of here, I promise.”

The door swung open and a half dozen Hydra agents wielding guns filed into the room. With both arms and a knife or two Bucky could’ve taken them out easily, but he was currently unarmed in every sense of the word. Even if he somehow managed to win the fight, there was no way he could guarantee Tony would be safe from the crossfire.

An older man stepped into the room, clearly someone in charge. Was this someone Bucky had met before? Was he an important figure he should remember from before, as the Asset? Maybe, but Bucky didn’t even remember the man from yesterday, and he had to assume the familiar glare Tony was throwing his way meant he had come to visit them before.

“Mr. Rhodes, I see you’ve given yourself an upgrade in the car battery department. Am I correct in assuming this means you have made no progress on the machine today?”

“I told you, this is a very complicated machine. It’s going to take me a long time to get it to work right.”

“A shame.” The man clicked his fingers and two of the agents pushed Bucky into the chair, strapping down his legs and one functioning arm.

“Nothing has changed on the machine since yesterday, it’s pointless to try to zap him, you already know it’s not going to work.” Tony was trying to bargain with the man, and Bucky nearly asked him where ‘just let it happen’ ran off to.

“I told you we would test the machine every day, and I am a man of my word. Gentlemen, proceed.”

The electricity ripping through him forced a scream from his throat, and Bucky didn’t try to hold it in. All his energy was focused on not slipping into the fog he could feel creeping up around the edges of his mind. Tony needed him to hold on, and Bucky owed him that much at least.

It finally ended, and Bucky sagged into the chair, utterly exhausted. The man moved to stand in front of him before speaking. “Soldier, status report.”

Bucky said nothing, and the man turned to Tony angrily.

“Another day, another failure, Mr. Rhodes. I would have thought you would be tired of this routine by now.”

Bucky watched as a group of agents dragged a tub of water into the room. Tony’s warning was the only thing that kept Bucky from busting out of his restraints as he watched an agent kick Tony’s legs out from under him and hold his head in the tub under the surface.

Little bloody crescents from his fingernails digging into his palm appeared as he watched them hold Tony under and pull him sputtering back up, only to force him back underwater before he could catch his breath. At one point Tony passed out and Bucky thought they would stop, but they just waited for him to wake up before starting the process all over again.

He watched silently, feeling utterly useless until some of the agents standing nearby started chatting amongst themselves. Tony mentioned he couldn’t understand what their captors were saying, probably because he didn’t speak German. Bucky spoke more languages than he ever remembered learning, so he listened, and what he heard made his stomach clench.

At some cue Bucky didn’t catch, the Hydra cronies finally stopped what they were doing and let Tony go. Bucky was unstrapped from the chair, and as everyone filed out of the room he fell down on the floor next to Tony. He pulled the shivering man into his lap and held him as tight as his one arm would allow.

“I’m sorry Tony, I’m sorry, this is all my fault,” he murmured into the damp hair beneath his chin.

“N-no it’s n-not, we’ve b-been over this already.”

Bucky pulled him closer. “Yes, it is, I heard them talking. Someone at the tower has been feeding them information. When I used my card to get the car it tipped off Hydra that I was leaving the tower. I let myself get tracked and it’s my fault we’re here and my fault you’re being tortured.”

Tony was silent for a long moment as his shivers abated. “Ok, that’s a problem, and when we get back we need to deal with it, but you didn’t force someone to spy on you and turn you over to Hydra. It’s not your fault we’re here, and it’s definitely not your fault I keep getting the spa treatment.”

Bucky didn’t really have an answer to that, so he just kept holding Tony. He wasn’t sure how long they sat there, but eventually Tony wriggled out of his grasp and stood shakily to his feet.

“C’mon Buckaroo, we got a suit to build.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no universe in which I let Tony live out his life sans-heart problems.


	5. Time To Peace Out

Without the battery weighing him down Tony was able to work much faster on the suit than he had the arc reactor. It helped also that even missing an arm Bucky was able to easily carry objects Tony would’ve struggled to drag across the floor.

Their days had a routine. Get up, work on the suit, hide the pieces before anyone came in, get tortured, and then huddle together for whatever sleep they could manage to find. It was somehow both horrendous and monotonous; Tony worked as hard as he could to break them out of both the cycle and the cell.

The moment the last piece of the suit was completed Tony insisted on immediately enacting their escape plan.

“Are you sure about this?” Bucky asked as he bolted together a leg section, “Don't you want to wait a day and test it first?”

“I'm a genius Bucky, my stuff works the first time.” It was a pretty bold lie, but if Tony had to spend one more day listening to Bucky screaming in the chair his heart was going to shatter.

They worked as fast as they could, hurriedly fitting together panels and connecting the arc reactor to the thrusters in the hand. Bucky eyed them warily. “Are you _sure_ this is safe?”

Tony clicked the shoulder joints into place and picked up the helmet. “Bucky, I promise, everything is going to be fine. We’ll be out of here before dinner. Speaking of, you still owe me burgers you know.” Voices began to float in from outside the door, and Tony had a sudden flash of panic. “But just in case...”

He grabbed Bucky’s hand, pulled him close, and slotted their lips together.

In any other circumstance the kiss would’ve been perfect, especially when Bucky moaned – _moaned_ – into his mouth, but he could hear Hydra agents working on opening the door to the room. Time was up. He broke off the kiss and was treated to the sight of Bucky’s flushed cheeks and blown pupils.

“Here we go.” He pulled on the helmet and turned to face the doorway. Bucky shifted to stand behind him as the door swung open.

Revenge wasn’t supposed to make you happy, Tony thought. A good person would probably bemoan having to cause harm to others regardless of their crimes. Tony, apparently, was not a very good person, because he took extreme pleasure in blasting through the agents who came swarming in the entryway, especially that smug bastard in charge. The look of shock on his face when he was sent flying through the air was going to keep Tony going for a long time.

Bullets rang through the air but the armor – yes, Bucky, it was armor, shut up – did its job. The Hydra goons were quickly incapacitated, and Tony began clomping towards the exit. He could hear Bucky going through pockets behind him, probably looking for a weapon he could easily use one-handed.

The pair found themselves at the end of a corridor, which at least made it easier to decide which way to go. Tony was glad for this mainly because, while being a marvel of advanced engineering, the suit was heavy and he didn’t want to drag it any farther than he had to. He also must have made a miscalculation somewhere because one of the stomach panels wasn’t fitted properly, too loose on the left side and pinching in painfully on the right.

As they moved through the facility they occasionally ran into small pockets of more Hydra personnel, who they were quick to disperse. They did hasty searches of any rooms they passed, but kept to the same hallway they started on.

“Did you notice we’re going up?” Bucky said.

Tony attempted to nod, but the bulky suit didn’t allow that range of movement. “I did. I think we’re at least partially underground.”

Someone must have eventually sounded an alarm, because when they turned the next corner they were met with rows of agents point guns at them. Tony didn’t hesitate, and neither did their enemies. Bullets and thruster blasts rang out in the crowded space, making Tony panic for a minute thinking of Bucky crouched behind him and the possibility of a ricochet.

That thought was driven from his mind as a piercing pain shot through his left side. He couldn’t look down, but he knew if he did he would see the misaligned stomach panel leaving just enough gap for one lucky bullet to get through.

He blasted the remaining agents down a bit more erratically than before, and only barely managed not to collapse right there. There was no way of knowing if there’d be more enemies, he couldn’t stop now.

“I’m gonna check in here,” Bucky said, stepping into the room next to him. A few minutes later he emerged, waving a small piece of plastic. “I found my Avengers card!” He pressed his fingers along the side of the card, and it began flashing orange. Bucky cursed. “Damn it, it can’t get a signal. We gotta make it outside.”  
Tony hoped outside was close, because he was starting to get dizzy. He wasn’t dead yet though, so he kept moving ahead of Bucky, prepared to continue defending him against anyone who was left.

Luckily, the firefight that got him shot seemed to have been Hydra’s last stand. No one else confronted them as they trudged along, finally shoving through one last doorway into glittering sunlight.

The door they had emerged from was set into the side of a rock outcropping, and they appeared to be in the middle of a thin forest. “You know,” Bucky said, gazing around them, “I think we’re still in New York.”

Tony gaped at him incredulously, although the helmet made that unclear. “What the hell part of this could possibly remind you of New York?”

“Not the city, you jerk,” Bucky said as he once again ran his fingers along the card, “upstate somewhere.”

The card lit up green and Bucky whooped in delight. “Yes! Knew it would work!”

Tony leaned against the rock wall in relief. “So your friends are coming?”

“Yeah, and if we are upstate they should be here in the quinjet in no time. Literally any minute now.”

“Good. That’s good. Because I’ve got a little problem.” He let his legs finally give out and he slumped down against the wall, half sitting, half sprawling on the ground.

Bucky was at his side immediately, shaking his shoulder. “Tony? Tony what happened, what’s wrong?”

“Might’ve gotten a teensy bit shot,” Tony groaned, and pried open the faulty stomach panel.

“What?! Fuck,” Bucky reached into the suit and started pressing on the wound. It hurt like hell, and Tony couldn’t help the yelp that escaped him. “I know Tony, I’m sorry, but you’re covered in blood, we gotta get this under control.”

Tony wanted to say something reassuring, but staying conscious was getting too hard. A whirring sound made him glance up, and through the helmet’s eye slots he could just barely make out the shape of some kind of aircraft descending near them. He allowed himself to close his eyes. Bucky’s friends were here, they were going to be fine.

The sound of the aircraft got louder as it landed, then voices were shouting at them.

“Bucky!”

“Steve! Get Bruce!”

“Holy shit Barnes, is that a robot?”

“Barton shut your goddamn mouth and _help me!_ ”

Tony could feel himself slipping away again; he hadn’t blacked out twice in one month since college. Hopefully this time he wouldn’t wake up attached to any more batteries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't know how to transition a chapter, just knock your POV character unconscious.


	6. Palpitations

Bucky paced up and down the hallway furiously. The off-white walls and disgustingly sanitary smell of the hospital was driving him insane. Steve wasn’t helping, watching him from a chair against the wall and fiddling with his visitor’s badge.

Walking the exactly 37 steps between the stairs and the vending machine and back again was all that was keeping him from punching someone, so when Steve stepped into his path Bucky shot him a glare that made his friend flinch.

“Winter, I need you to calm down. Please, bring Bucky back, you’re scaring the nurses.”

Bucky wasn’t in the mood for this. “What the hell are you talking about, Stevie?”

“Bucky?” Steve said, startled.

“I haven’t reverted back to the soldier for months Steve, why’re looking at me like I’m crazy.” Bucky was tired and his patience had been worn thin.

“You were, uh, you were doing your murder strut.” Steve nodded his head down the hall, and when Bucky looked he saw a group of hospital staff peeking anxiously around a corner. “Kinda freaked everyone out.”

“I’m _pacing_ Steve, not doing a ‘murder strut’ or whatever you called it.”

“That’s not how a person not about to commit murder paces, Buck.” Steve looked at him sadly. “Cmon, Bucky, what’s wrong? I haven’t seen you this upset in…well, ever.”

All his anger drained out of him, and Bucky laid his head against Steve’s shoulder. “They won’t let me go in his room Steve.”

Steve stiffened for a moment, then wrapped his arms around him and started rubbing small circles into his back. “Buck, is there something you want to tell me?” Bucky shook his head no, then yes, then no again. There wasn’t anything to tell. They had kissed, sure, but a month in a cave together and the threat of imminent danger made people do stupid things. No matter how much he wanted it to, he couldn’t assume Tony’s actions had meant anything.

“Alright,” Steve said, “but you know if there was you could talk to me, right?” Bucky nodded. “Ok, good. And Bucky, they’re going to let you in, they just to wait for him to wake up first. Stop worrying, the doctor said surgery went great, the bullet didn’t hit any organs, he’s going to be fine.”

Bucky knew Steve was right, but it didn’t loosen the pit in his stomach. He brought his hand up to clutch the back of Steve’s shirt and allowed himself to be comforted.

They stood clutching each other in the hallway until Tony’s door opened and his doctor walked out. Bucky leapt towards him, only remembering at the last minute to school his expression into something that didn’t scream crazed maniac.

“Is he awake, can I see him?”

The doctor startled; maybe Bucky hadn’t done a great job with the face. “Mr. Rhodes is awake, but,” he looked down at the clipboard in his hands, “you are neither his brother nor a Ms. Potts, so no, you may not see him.”

Steve saw the impending storm and stepped in quickly, turning on his best Captain America voice. “Sir, if Mr. Rhodes does not want this man in his room I will escort him out personally.” Even without the uniform it was pretty impressive, and the doctor looked a little bit star-struck.

“Alright, but only for a little while and –“

Bucky was already pushing past him into the room. Tony was lying in a white-sheeted hospital bed that contrasted sharply with his dark hair, surrounded by beeping machines and tubes feeding in various fluids. When Bucky walked in his face lit up in a grin.

“Bucky!”

Relief shot through him and he couldn’t help but smile back. He walked across the room and sat in the chair next to the bed. “Hey Tony, how’re you feeling?”

“Pretty good, but I’d be better if I wasn’t stuck in this place. You here to spring me?”

Bucky glared at him. “You can’t leave Tony, you got shot.”

“I only got shot a little!” Tony rolled his eyes, “You were there, remember all those times I could’ve gotten shot and didn’t? Statistically I did great!”

“You are going to stay here until the doctor says you’re ready to go, and then I’m going to double check and make sure you didn’t just hack their computers and change your own status.”

“You’re no help at all.” Tony said, “Could you at least bring me a tablet or something? I bet I could get some rough designs for your arm whipped up while I’m here.”

Bucky looked at him incredulously. “Seriously? Tony, my arm was incredibly complicated, even I don’t really know how it worked and it was stuck on my body for decades. How long exactly do you think you’re going to be trapped here?”

“A couple days at least, right? What? Don’t look at me like that!” Bucky wasn’t sure exactly what his face was doing, but Tony was apparently offended. “My entire job is to make revolutionary new tech and to make it fast, I can figure out your arm no problem.”

“Oh really? Then why did I go a whole month without you making one.”

Tony scowled at him. “We were in a _cave_ Bucky. I’m not going to wire into your body something I made in a _cave_.”

Bucky raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at the circle of blue light shining through Tony’s hospital gown. Tony flushed. “Yes, well, extenuating circumstances. Also, I’m a hypocrite. Shut up.”

Bucky laughed, and after a few seconds of stubborn pouting Tony joined in. They were ok. A little worse for wear, but they were ok, and they were together.

“I’ll get you a tablet, Tony, but you gotta promise you’re just going to design the arm. No fabricating until you’re released.”

Tony waved him off. “Sure, sure, I’ll be good. Gimme your hand, I’m gonna start brainstorming joint connectors.”

Bucky propped his arm up on the bed and Tony took his hand in his. A thrill went through Bucky at the touch. Even if it had meant nothing, even if it was just because they were probably about to die, Bucky still had to ask.

“Tony?”

“Mm?” Tony murmured, focused on moving the tip of Bucky’s pinky finger back and forth.

“Why did you kiss me?”

Tony froze, hand still holding Bucky’s. “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said, not looking up.

Bucky swallowed. “And now?”

“…Still seems like a pretty good idea.”

Bucky removed his hand from Tony’s, and a sadness flashed through his eyes at the loss of contact before Bucky was sliding his hand under Tony’s head and leaning over to crush their mouths together. Tony’s hands gripped Bucky’s shirt and pulled him halfway into the tiny hospital bed, Bucky supporting himself on his elbow with one leg on the ground and the other flung over Tony’s hip.

With his own heart beating a hyper staccato Bucky didn’t even notice Tony’s heart monitor pick up. When the hospital room door burst open Tony jerked away from the kiss, startled by the two men who had come running inside. The doctor took one look at what was going on, turned around, and left immediately. Steve, however, was a little shit.

“Still nothing to talk about Buck?”

Bucky was not in the mood for his smug voice and shit-eating grin. “Shut up, Steve,“ he growled, trailing kisses along Tony’s neck. Tony squirmed, his face flushed red with embarrassment and hopefully a little something else.

“Good luck with him, Mr. Rhodes,” Steve said, laughter under his breath.

“Ah, please call me Tony. I think – eep!” Tony yelped as Bucky nipped at his collarbone, “I think we’ve pretty well ruined our professional relationship.”

Steve laughed outright at that. “Fair enough. See ya later Tony, Bucky.”

He turned around and walked out, closing the door behind him. _Finally_. Bucky removed his hand from beneath Tony’s head and shoved it under the bedsheets. He began trailing teasing touches slowly up Tony’s thigh and-

“Oh for-Bucky!” Steve’s voice rang out through the door, “Turn off the heart monitor!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This piece was written for the WinterIron Spring Fling 2017 for Arboreal.
> 
> Prompts were:
> 
> Tony is still a genius, but not Howard's son. He does work for SI, but not in weapons. The Avengers are still housed at the top of SI tower as part of Howard's will. When Steve brings Bucky to the tower he's still mostly the Winter Soldier, except for stalking the cute engineer Tony who keeps accidentally finding Bucky's hiding spots.
> 
> and
> 
> Stargazing
> 
> "But wait! Who was feeding HYDRA information on Bucky? Why does Tony have an AI named JARVIS if he never had Jarvis as a butler? Is Tony going to be an Avenger? Are Rhodey and Pepper rushing to the hospital right now after getting the emergency contact calls? What was everyone doing the entire month their friends were gone?" 
> 
> Fine, you caught me, I'm writing a sequel. This prompt exploded into an actual fleshed out AU in my head, and there's still so much left to explore. I'm only in the drafting process right now so no promises as to when it'll start going up, but it is coming!
> 
> For the latest updates on where I am with the sequel/to remind me to work on it, come see me on [Tumblr](https://sophiebot.tumblr.com/).


End file.
